Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Well, it's going great! Uriah was very unhappy at the idea of nightweaning. At first. The first several days were very, very hard, especially once I stopped nursing him at night altogether (night 4 and later). I almost threw in the towel at one point. Almost. I think I was on night 5 or 6, and my lovely friends and family convinced me to keep on trying. Guess what? It got easier after that! Uriah still wakes up at about 12:30 every night, but it takes about 2 minutes to get him back to sleep now, and I don't have to get out of bed or even hold him. I just shush him (he likes the white noise), push down on the bed a little so he jiggles a bit, and maybe say a few soft gentle words while patting him, and he falls back asleep. This would not have been possible a few weeks ago! I am so happy that the nightweaning has worked! I didn't follow Dr. Gordon's plan to a T this time, as I did with Rose, because Uriah was about 6 months younger than Rose when I nightweaned her. I stayed on phase 2 for a couple of additional days, and we naturally and easily transitioned to phase 3 a few days later.

Friday, April 01, 2011

So I noticed a little bit of discoloration on Uriah's teeth recently. I'm so frustrated. I've been doing everything "right" this time- little sugar, hardly ever any juice (maybe 1-2x a month), teeth get brushed very well daily with no-fluoride toothpaste, but he also gets fluoride supplements every day. The theory is, if teeth are brushed well, breastmilk on the teeth does not cause cavities. There is actually a dentist who has done extensive research on this matter and has come to that conclusion. I'm starting to doubt that now because all 3 of my kids have had some amount of decay on their front top teeth. It may be somewhat genetic though, since I know plenty of other people who have much worse oral hygiene habits that have kids with perfectly beautiful and healthy teeth. I guess I have to be extra careful with my children to prevent this from happening.

So I decided that nightweaning is necessary to stop some of the decay. I have a very fast letdown, and we cosleep, so I think some of the milk actually is pooling up in his mouth causing the decay. I didn't nightwean Rose until she was older, and Lacy nightweaned out of necessity because I was pregnant with Rose, so her damage was less severe . Uriah is 14 months now and perfectly capable of nightweaning. It's a hard process though. I decided to start it last night.

The first night is really hard because they've never had to be forced to do without nursing at night before. You do allow them some nursing (2-3 minutes) but not to where they fall asleep again. And this really upset Uriah. REALLY upset him. He woke up at 11:45 last night and cried and screamed and fought until 1:15 when I finally was able to lay down with him. He woke up again maybe twice more, but it was easier to get him back to sleep then. He woke up happy and smiling this morning, so no harm done! We've just got to get through 9 more days of this.